“I pray you, if it please you, fine amours”

January 17, 2023 10:39 AM

Trobairitz: The Lady Composers of Medieval France is an introduction to the female troubadours of Occitania by Sarah Berry. Only one whole song, music and lyrics, attributed to a trobairitz survives in whole, the Comtesse de Dia’s A chantar m'er de so qu'eu no volria (here in the rendition of Ensemble Céladon and Paulin Bündgen, but many versions exist). Here is another poem by her in Magda Bogin’s translation. About twenty other trobairitz are known by name, and a number of anonymous poems show hints of female authorship. Claudia Keelan published a book of her translations, which she discussed in an essay including some translations and you can see her read dialogue poems with other readers. Finally, here is a translation by Samantha Pious of Bieiris de Romans’ love poem to a woman.
posted by Kattullus (5 comments total)

For whatever reason I’m now having some problems with playing the Claudia Keelan video, but it works fine on MetaFilter’s embed page.
posted by Kattullus at 11:21 AM on January 17, 2023

Well there goes my afternoon. Thanks for this.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 11:21 AM on January 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

Lovely! Many thanks!
posted by cool breeze at 2:23 PM on January 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

This is fantastic stuff! Thanks so much for sharing it.
posted by heteronym at 8:10 PM on January 17, 2023

This is really making me miss the group I used to belong to, that was devoted to researching and performing classical works by women, as well as commissioning new ones. It dissolved a couple of years before the pandemic. We were planning a reunion program for the centennial of women's suffrage in the United states, but it didn't happen for obvious reasons.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:20 PM on January 18, 2023 [2 favorites]